There are a couple of ways to measure Hoover (Ala.) High School's commitment to football.

One is what the Birmingham-area school spends, itself. Hoover isn't stingy, allotting close to $80,000 a year. The overall outlay for the three-time state-champion program is far greater, however — a six-digit difference owed to a deep-pocketed booster club.

The Buccaneer Touchdown Club kicked in $316,988.92 in support last year, nearly quadrupling the school's investment, according to Hoover athletics director Jerry Browning. Ten separate booster clubs backing other sports brought overall contributions to Hoover's athletics program to a little more than $854,000, Browning says.

"There are jokes," he says. "Some people look at us and call us Hoover University because of the funds that are raised for sports. But I don't think you can blame us for success. I don't think we should apologize because we have parents who are very, very concerned and very, very willing to work and contribute and do the things necessary to provide the best for their children."

In an era of shrinking state funding for education and cost cutting by local school districts, that support — the tangible kind, fronted by dollar signs — is increasingly vital.

For some cash-strapped sports programs, it's a means of survival. For others, like Hoover's football powerhouse, booster contributions spell the difference between getting by and competing at the highest level. It's where they get such extras as new or reconditioned weight rooms and high-tech digital film analyzers for scouting. A number of clubs kick in bonuses for coaches.

A survey of coaches and athletics directors at the nation's 26 top football-playing schools, based on composite USA TODAY rankings since 1982, found 15 with football-specific booster clubs. Some are mothers' and parents' organizations. Others are closer to the big-time college variety.

The latter invite college-variety concerns — about boosters' over-involvement in a program, about their meddling, about donors with the heaviest financial investments trying to influence lineup and other coaching decisions.

But the payoff can be significant.

Taking care of things

The Minnetonka (Minn.) Touchdown Club, carefully cultivated by coach Dave Nelson in his three years at the Minneapolis-area school, raised $280,000 last year, President Mack Traynor says. It has furnished new uniforms and other equipment and committed $350,000 over 10 years for synthetic turf and an inflatable dome over its playing field.

The Hattiesburg (Miss.) Oak Grove Warrior Club jump-started the upgrade of an array of athletics facilities, including an almost $1.9 million, 6,603-seat football stadium, adjacent field house and new baseball and softball fields. The club installed an irrigation system for the fields, completed the inside of the field house, erected baseball backstops and dugouts and installed lights.

When its plans outpaced funds on hand, members of the club's executive board secured a $250,000 capital improvements loan. Other members guaranteed the loan, club President Larry Harrington says.

In Northern California's Alameda County, the Castro Valley Sports Foundation — described by President Martin Capron as a "super-booster club" — came up with almost $300,000 from fundraising and $1.6 million in state funding in the first 14 months of a drive for a new football stadium and surrounding sports complex. Projected completion date: 2006. Price tag: up to $10 million.

"Without our booster club, we could not put the team that we put out on the field," says Farmington Hills (Mich.) Harrison associate principal Bill Smith, whose 12-time state-champion football program gets about $30,000 a year in support. That's double the school's budgeted expenditures.

"For example," Smith says, "we had a couple of kids hurt in practice. In the school budget, we don't designate the funds to get them the knee braces they need to play. We make that request to our booster club, and those things are here the next day."

And because Harrison's coach, John Herrington, is a 33-year institution, "We really don't have an issue with the football boosters overstepping their bounds," Smith says. "The majority of our booster members were either players for him or brothers or sisters of people who played for him. Our coaches are somewhat sacred."

Not all are.

Interference call

Mike O'Brien was fired by Valdosta (Ga.) High School after an 8-3-1 season that ended in the second round of the state playoffs in 2002. In remarks to SI.com shortly afterward and Georgia Trend magazine again this year, he pointed to discontent within its Touchdown Club as an underlying reason.

Club and school officials deny booster involvement, though former club president and 44-year board member David Waller says he agreed with the decision.

The Berwick (Pa.) 12th Man Club disbanded after a 2003 dispute with another organization over which would be the officially recognized football fundraiser. The 12th Man Club had feuded with longtime coach George Curry for years, among other things over its decision not to fund a players' trip to Florida after the 2000 season.

Ask him today, and Curry, USA TODAY's coach of the year in 1983 and 1992, will tell you booster clubs are unnecessary. "Make enough money to feed the kids after a game; that's nice, and we appreciate it," he says. "And giving us a (year-end) banquet, we appreciate it. But I was coaching for years when we didn't have a booster club. ... And we did very well.

"All you need is a football, players, some people to help you — a staff — and a field. ... If a school can't afford a football program, then drop it, OK? I don't think you can rely on other people to raise the money for it. Because ... they're going to want to take charge."

Washington, D.C.-area power DeMatha High School has no booster club, in part out of wariness of such issues, according to coach and associate athletics director Bill McGregor.

Funds from Hoover's 11 booster clubs, meanwhile, run through the school's athletics office, though Browning says the clubs can spell out how they're spent as long as it's not "something outrageous."

The Buccaneer Touchdown Club has purchased weight equipment and outfitted an air-conditioned training trailer, for taping and other needs, for road games. It pays for the team to travel on chartered rather than school buses.

"Our kids work extremely hard," Browning says. "I think our parents and our booster club want to make sure we provide the things they need."

And make no mistake. They see a return. Hoover, ranked No. 4 in USA TODAY's rankings, has won three of Alabama's last four Class 6A titles.